Say Hi to Lance For Me
by A. E. Stover
Summary: On their way to visit Lance by the lakeside meadow, Hunk and Pidge run into some trouble.


They were walking through a dense forest on the planet Borrea when, suddenly, an adorable furry creature dropped down from the leaves and landed with a plop right on Hunk's helmet.

Pidge cooed. "Awww."

Hunk screamed. "OH MY GOD, IT'S ON ME! QUICK, GET IT OFF! _GET IT OFF!"_

With a sneer, Pidge carefully carried the tiny black-spotted Borrean fruit bat off Hunk's helmet. "Don't be such a wuss, Hunk," she said, lifting the tiny animal up to a low hanging branch so it could scramble back up. "These things are harmless."

Hunk sputtered. "No, they're not!"

Pidge watched in mild fascination as Hunk quickly pulled out a cloth rag out of his pack, wiped down the visor of his helmet, wiped off Pidge's gloved hands, and tossed the rag into the underbrush of the forest as if it was filled with contagions.

Pidge made a skeptical face. "Was that really necessary?"

"Those things are dangerous, Pidge! They're like a magnet for death!"

Pidge blew a raspberry and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, okay."

Hunk's brow creased with a stern expression. "They're the primary food source for the Borrean Viper."

A chill went down Pidge's spine. The Borrean Viper was a monstrous serpent-like creature reaching 30 feet in length. It tunneled underground, and moved like lightening to catch prey from below. Its jaws could easily snap through steel, and its serrated fangs dripped with a potent venom that slowly dissolved internal organs. There was no known antidote.

"Oh," said Pidge, biting the inside of her cheek.

Hunk crossed his arms matter of factly. "Yeah, 'oh' is right." He shook his head. "Now let's get out of here," he groused. "I don't wanna run into another one after what happened last time." With that, he clomped through a thick grove of trees, straying off the path to a destination he claimed to know all too well.

Pidge let the atmosphere turn solemn as she followed Hunk out of the Borrean woodlands to the lakeside meadow where Lance now stayed.

They were marching through a bog when Pidge grumbled for the seventh time, "I can't believe you got us lost."

Hunk remained resolutely optimistic. "We're not lost, Pidge. We're just, uh… We're taking the scenic route?" Hunk had the audacity to end his statement with a smile.

Pidge slapped a hand to her face. "Oh my god."

"Hey, look!" Hunk was suddenly pointing behind them. "Up there!"

Pidge squinted her eyes far ahead. Emerging from the thick line of the forest they'd long since left behind was a cloud of dust that seemed to grow bigger and bigger the longer they remained as they were. A low, squelching rumble could be heard in the empty, silent bog, and Pidge felt the tremors under her feet before she noticed the ripples in the mud.

She cast an uncertain look in Hunk's direction. When she saw how pale Hunk's face had suddenly become, she felt her uncertainty plague her heart and make it pound fiercely in her chest.

"You— Do you know what that is?"

"Yeah…" Hunk sent Pidge a strained smile. "That's the Viper."

Pidge was slammed with a wave of nausea from the sudden shot of cold fear running through her veins. "W-What do we do? You said it's resistant to plasma discharges, right? How do we fight it?"

Hunk took his bayard in hand, clenching slowly around the handle. Pidge followed suit, withdrawing her own bayard and looking back to Hunk. She noticed the bayard still in his hand, unformed and docile. "What should we do?" she asked, her voice wavering slightly as the tremors grew stronger. When the silence answering her stretched too long, Pidge whipped her head back to her only teammate. "Hunk!"

"I-I know. Just— Let me think." Hunk's lips became a thin line as he stared long and hard at the fast-approaching cloud of dust for a second longer, then twisted his head to survey their surroundings. When he spoke at last, it was not what Pidge wanted to hear.

"Run, Pidge."

Pidge felt her eyes grow impossibly wide. "You can't be serious."

With a golden flash, Hunk's bayard took the shape of a heavy plasma cannon. He trudged his feet through the mud to stand his ground a few steps ahead of her.

"Hunk, you said it yourself, it's resistant to—"

"I knocked it out before," Hunk reminded her, voice strong with conviction. "I can do it again."

"But Lance— We promised Lance that we'd—"

"Lance isn't here!" Hunk shouted angrily, throwing her a fierce look. "So hurry up and go! He's waiting, isn't he?!"

"He's waiting for both of us!" Pidge screamed, fists clenched tight at her sides. A hot wave of emotion threatened to spill right out of her. She could feel it form a lump in her throat and throw burning tears in her eyes. "I'm not leaving here without you!"

Hunk's shoulders suddenly drooped. His head fell forward, as if a weight had been pressed against the back of his neck. "Pidge," he sighed, not turning around to look at her. "Say hi to Lance for me."

Tears welled in her eyes, but they did not fall. "You can say hi to him yourself," she bit out.

Hunk gave a dry laugh. "Yeah. I guess I can."

Pidge turned and ran.

She ran through the mud, through the bog; ran away from the thundering booms and crackling hisses of concentrated energy shooting and pelting against thick, reptilian scales. She filtered the sounds of Hunk shouting and cursing, letting them die out and mingle with the sloshing of her feet through the mud. Her vision blurred and cleared as she escaped the bog; minutes into her run, her feet felt lighter, moved faster, and soon it felt like she was flying right over the marshland.

Finally, she found the hill. _The_ hill, the one leading to the lakeside meadow. The one marking the lands to where Lance would be.

Without looking back, without shedding a tear, without giving herself time to feel the weight of being utterly and completely alone, Pidge started up the hill. She climbed up the grassy terrain, avoiding the sandy patches of gravelly dirt strewn about the hillside. She came to the top and didn't stop to take in the view of the lake; she just kept going, marching onwards until she got down to the valley leading to the meadow.

Five great rocks, bleached white from the star Borrea orbited, sunk deeply in the plush grass of the meadow. Beyond them was the old stone cottage, abandoned by the Borreans and used only by the paladins in between diplomatic trips to nearby galaxies. But the cottage was not what Pidge had come for.

Pidge stopped only when she finally reached the stones, collapsing when they were right in front of her. Her helmet knocked against the one in the middle, the first of the great rocks that had been set firmly into the Borrean earth, the one that started it all.

Pidge threw off her helmet and let it land somewhere in the grass. She looped her arms around the rock in the center and pressed her forehead against it. "I'm here, Lance," she said, and she finally let the tears fall as she cried against the rock. "I'm here. I'm— I'm sorry that I— that it's just me. I'm—" She swallowed a hiccuping sob and tried again, "I'm sorry it's just me."

The hot star beat down on her back, as if it were the sun of Earth, and made the five great rocks shine.

.

.

.

.

.

She'd cleaned the armor of her suit and was putting it back on when she heard the telltale crunching of gravelly dirt on the other side of the hill. Wildly, Pidge turned around with her bayard in hand, letting it take the shape of a taser. She kept her eyes on the top of the hill, waiting for the Viper to appear.

A large, hulking shadow came over the hill.

Pidge dropped her bayard. She started to cry.

Hunk came down the hill, walked past the great rocks, and crossed the meadow all the way to the stone cottage. He stopped just before her, his suit blackened and browned with mud and deep gashes that were stained with thick, purple sludge. His face was bruised, his eyes were blood-shot, and when he grinned at her, she saw that he was missing a tooth.

"Did you say hi to Lance for me?" he asked.

Pidge threw a fist into his chest and gave a wet laugh. "You can say hi to him yourself." She let him pull her into a tight hug.

"Yeah," said Hunk. "I guess I can."


End file.
